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May 8th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda An Iranian asylum-seeker has told how passengers aboard a boat that crashed off Christmas Island in 2010 were “very scared” by high seas and winds when it arrived late at night.
Mehdi Rahimzadeh told the West Australian District Court on Tuesday that the ill-fated Indonesian fishing vessel SIEV 221 arrived off the island with 89 passengers and three crew on the night of December 14 or early hours of December 15.
“People were very scared because it was very rough and high winds,” he said through an interpreter when asked about first seeing the faintly lit island in the pitch black Indian Ocean.
Mr Rahimzadeh was giving evidence in the trial of three Indonesian crew members, Abdul Rasjid, Supriyadi and Hardi Hans, who have each pleaded not guilty to a charge of facilitating the passage to Australia of a group of five or more people, contrary to the Migration Act.
He said he had paid $US6000 ($A5,902) for a false passport in Tehran, Iran, before flying to Jakarta in Indonesia, where he paid people smugglers a further $US1000 ($A984) to take him to Australia.
In a haunting court photo of the SIEV 221 taken from Christmas Island on the morning of December 15, the intact vessel could be seen just tens of metres away from the jagged rocks of a coastal cliff.
When asked where he had been on the vessel during his three-day voyage from Indonesia, Mr Rahimzadeh pointed to a man on deck in the photo and said, “I think it’s myself standing there.”
Crown prosecutor Ron Davies QC had earlier told members of the jury they might work out for themselves that the vessel had crashed, but the trial had “absolutely nothing to do with the crash or events that followed”.
“You may well work out that this is the boat that crashed at Christmas Island,” Mr Davies said.
“That is where the crown’s evidence will stop.”
Mr Davies said the boat had originally left southern Indonesia on a “dark night” on December 12.
On board were 89 asylum seekers – men, women and children of Middle Eastern descent – and four crew members, later reduced to the three accused.
Mr Davies said the fourth crew member might have been the real captain of the SIEV 221, who escaped on a smaller boat that had been following the main vessel, before it arrived at its destination.
He said Rasjid might then have taken over as skipper, while Supriyadi and Hans helped run the boat by bailing out water from the engine room and taking turns at steering.
Conditions aboard the vessel were described as “squalid”, with “very little food” but “enough water” to last the journey.
Mr Davies said witnesses would tell the court Rasjid had ordered them to “rip up their passports” and throw the pieces overboard, along with their mobile phones and navigation equipment, just before it arrived off Christmas Island.
He said everyone on board knew they were going to Australia, and each of the three crew had been offered 20 million rupiah – just over $A2000 at the time – with a 1 million rupiah cash advance to cover expenses.
The crew knew they were doing something “illegal”, the prosecutor said, and were told they might be jailed in Australia – but only “for three months”.
“(Rasjid) thought three months was worth it for 20 million rupiah,” Mr Davies told the jury.
Defence lawyer George Christou told the jury there was no issue Rasjid was on the boat, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy them he had facilitated an illegal trip to Australia.
He said Rasjid had no idea of where he was being asked to pilot the boat, as he set a course almost due south, and there was no evidence he had organised the trip or outfitted the vessel.
“Mr Rasjid was not a people smuggler,” Mr Christou said.
The trial continues before Justice Philip McCann.
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